Abstract

In a role reminiscent of his 'prologue' in Kenneth Branagh's version of Henry V (1989), Derek Jacobi comes on screen to introduce Roland Emmerich's film Anonymous (2011). It concerns a clogged, crazy Elizabethan world where ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things are just a part of the whole syllabub. Audience enthusiasm for theatrical events is at an all-time high, and the theatrical companies are hungry for suitable texts to perform. Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) has become an increasing part of the supply chain. He is an astute, ambitious man of no pedigree, but with his head screwed on and with an eye to the next guinea.